Fat Club

Marriage has done nothing for my waistline. Well it has actually, it's expanded it. Age isn't helping either. My metabolism has slowed to a crawl and I've started avoiding mirrors.

When I moved to England I really, really missed my Merritt Athletic Club in Baltimore: Body Combat, the outdoor pool in the summer, yoga classes included in the membership price, and the stair stepper machine thingy are the main things I missed. I joined a new gym in England and it wasn't the same. It was okay, but it wasn't Merritt. Then I moved to Dublin and now I really, really miss my Fitness First in Bath/Bristol: I could use the locations interchangeably which worked well with my schedule, Body Combat, and my Saturday morning Pilates class which was included in the membership price. I joined the gym near us and well, the pool is beautiful, but other than that it's not great. Body Combat (the Les Mills one, not just one someone makes up) is very hard to come by in Dublin. There is only one gym in Dublin that I have found to teach Body Combat and it's not convenient to us. And, the yoga and Pilates classes at the gym are not included in the membership. On top of a monthly membership fee I'd have to pay an additional 70 euro to take yoga or Pilates. This is ridiculous.

In an effort to mix things up, I have frozen my gym membership and signed up for a bootcamp class in Phoenix Park. Yikes. People are going to be yelling at me and it will probably be raining. I think I'm actually more worried about the rain than the yelling. I decided to take an all-girl class, both because I've never done one of these before so I'm a little intimidated, and hopefully one person in the class will talk to me and be my friend.

Then to add insult to injury, I am joining Weight Watchers. I did WW in 2000 and lost 45 lbs. I didn't do the meetings, I just did it at home by myself. When I moved to England I was surprised how the girls were skinny, except for the 6-pack of beer they had sitting on their belly. I am now sporting my own mini-keg, muffin top, inner tube....call it whatever you want. The food here is different (i.e. less choice), the nutritional information on the back of food looks different, and well, I need a boost. I would have gone to the meetings this time (see above with the friend possibility), but the class that's up the street coincides with the bootcamp class. So, I'll do the At Home version. I'll have to buy a scale. Double yikes!

My goal right now is to be a solid US size 8 again. I guess that's a UK size 12. Fortunately, I don't have as much weight to lose this time around, but I also have a husband who has a metabolism that runs non-stop and doesn't need to lose weight. This is going to be the hardest part. Or maybe it will be avoiding scones. Or cheese. Or chips.

Oy.